Spain’s government has set itself the goal of getting high-speed rail to numerous regions which have long been waiting for AVE trains to reach them, connecting them to other parts of Europe through a rail expansion called the Atlantic Corridor.
Campaigners have long called for high-speed rail expansion along Spain’s leg of the so-called Atlantic Corridor.
Now, finally, the government might be doing something about it. For sceptics, however, some of whom have waited decades for high-speed connections, it’ll be a case of seeing is believing.
The Atlantic Corridor is a European transport, freight, and infrastructure network linking the Atlantic flank of Portugal and Spain with France and Germany.
Spurred by wider EU rail expansion plans, the Spanish government has now set itself the goal of promoting high-speed rail throughout underserved parts of the country along the Atlantic Corridor.
The goal is to have an AVE station within a half hour’s journey for 90 percent of the inhabitants along the Atlantic Corridor, which covers regions in western Spain.
Soon, if the project goes ahead as planned, nine in ten people living along the Atlantic Corridor will have access to a high-speed station within a half-hour journey by 2030.
This is according to an analysis carried out by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility in partnership with Adif.
The plans are ambitious: the Ministry pledges that by 2030 a total of 62 high-speed stations will be ready, spread across 28 provinces and 11 regions.
The autonomous communities that would reportedly benefit directly or indirectly include Galicia, the Basque Country, Navarre, La Rioja, Castilla y León and Extremadura.
The increase will have to be substantial because there are currently only 33 stations with high-speed services available, distributed across 8 regions and 19 provinces.
These works, according to the Ministry of Transport, will have to be completed by 31st December 2030 and represent an investment of €3.123 billion.
Welcome news for those living there, in theory, but campaigners in Spain have long called for better transport coverage in underserved areas.
It should be noted that the European Union has also for years called on Spain and Portugal to improve rail connectivity, which should materialise with a Madrid-Lisbon line by 2030.
READ MORE: Spain and Portugal agree Madrid-Lisbon high-speed train line
However, it will not be until 2034 that the line will be fully high-speed.
While the government aspires for 90 percent of the Atlantic Corridor residents to have high-speed connections less than half an hour from their home, this will be hard to achieve if the province does not have a high-speed station.
For example, Spain’s Transport Ministry makes no mention of Salamanca, one of the sticking points when expanding high-speed rail in the Atlantic Corridor. The EU plans a connection between the Spanish city and Porto, but little progress has been made so far.
Other regions to Spain’s far west, including Extremadura, have also long been left behind by high-speed infrastructure in other parts of the country.
Spain’s unequal high-speed distribution isn’t for a lack of rail, however.
It is the second country with the most high-speed lines in the world, surpassed only by China, and is a good example of how poorly planned growth resulted in high-speed stations with very little traffic.
Nor does living in a provincial capital guarantee high-speed access. In Zamora, for example, locals are campaigning for high-speed services covering the Galician leg of the corridor to stop there.
At present, the Atlantic Corridor passes through Spain with 5,400 kilometres of railway lines.
